LETTER

Antinuclear antibodies directed against proliferating cell nuclear antigen are not specifically associated with systemic lupus erythematosus

P Vermeersch¹, K Op De Beeck¹, B R Lauwerys², K Van den Bergh¹, M Develter¹, G Mariën¹, F A Houssiau², X Bossuyt¹

¹ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Immunology, University Hospitals Leuven, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
² Department of Rheumatology, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium

Correspondence to:
^{Correspondence to} Dr X Bossuyt, Laboratory Medicine, Immunology, University Hospitals Leuven, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium; Xavier.bossuyt@uz.kuleuven.be

Accepted 23 January 2009

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is an intranuclear protein that plays a role in DNA repair and replication. Anti-PCNA antibodies are considered a rare but highly specific marker for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).¹ Anti-PCNA antibodies are reported to occur in approximately 2–6% of patients with SLE.^{2 3} Given the rare occurrence, however, little is known about the clinical relevance of a positive anti-PCNA test.

To examine whether anti-PCNA antibodies are specifically associated with SLE, we retrospectively identified all patients with anti-PCNA antibodies at the University Hospitals Leuven over a 10-year period (January 1998–December 2007). Patient sera submitted for antinuclear antibody testing were tested by conventional immunofluorescence using Hep2 cells (Immuno Concepts, Sacramento, California, USA). Sera displaying the characteristic fine to coarse speckled nuclear staining of 30–60% interphase cells (fig 1) were considered positive when the titre was 1 : 80 or higher. Anti-PCNA was confirmed by dot blot using . . . [Full text of this article]

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